Mets Looking Strong As They Go for Sweep Tomorrow

In my first post since my rant about how the Mets need to push their starters as far as possible, I have seen that they did it last night, but not tonight. However, the key is that they won both ball games as they go for the sweep tomorrow.

Last night Oliver Perez pitched his heart out by throwing 120 pitches in seven innings, giving up just two hits, while walking three and striking out eight. Behind a two run homer by David Wright and a solo shot by Carlos Delgado, Aaron Heilman, who was using a revamped motion, struck out three in two innings to close out Oliver Perez's dominant performance, and send the Mets home happy with a 3-0 victory. He struck out two of three batters in the ninth for his first save in three chances, and first since Aug. 25, 2007, against the Dodgers. When asked if he wants to be the closer until Wagner returns, Heilman said, "If that's what it's going to be I'll take the ball."

Tonight, Heilman got his second consecutive save as the Mets held on to beat the fish by a score of 8-6. Carlos Delgado hit a mammoth home run in the 1st, Dan Murphy added the first of his big league career in the 6th, Carlos Beltran homered and drove in three runs, and David Wright had three hits to keep the Mets a game behind division-leading Philadelphia.

However, it took four relievers to get it done after call up Brian Stokes coughed up a 4-0 lead. Stokes left after 5 and 2/3 innings giving up seven hits and four runs, while walking one and striking out six. Scott Schoeneweis faced one batter and got him out in the 6th, Duaner Sanchez gave up a harmless double to Hanley Ramirez in the 7th, Joe Smith came on in the 8th, and gave up a run scoring double to Mike Jacobs and a run scoring single to Wes Helms, but as was said before, Heilman was able to close the door in the 9th, and preserve an 8-6 victory for the Mets.

Tomorrow, Mike Pelfrey goes for the sweep as he faces Josh Johnson. Stay tuned.